Just when everything was going so smoothly...ran a couple of errands this morning, then arrived at the tire place early enough to get the new tires installed and me home before the heat index hit 100 degrees here.

2 1/2 hours later, they are giving me and my groceries a ride home because a bolt? broke, they couldn't fix it and they must replace the axle. ???

I didn't really understand it, but parts had to be brought in from Peoria. It should be ready in the morning.

The service guy was very apologetic, and I decided it was today's lesson in patience.

So, puttered around the house, stayed inside and out of the heat, and began pulling things together to leave late next week.

I decided at Moraine View this past weekend that I needed a new camp chair and a new phone...an IPhone, no less, my first.

Both are now in my hands, and I have a red/grey Coleman camp chair very similar to yours, Mike, handles and all....tho no table attached.

I wrote my name on it, with permanent Sharpie.

A bit firmer and higher off the ground than my old one....better for my back and the down/up process for an aging woman.

And that's the news for today.

Maggie

__________________
🏡 🚐 Cherish and appreciate those you love. This moment could be your last.🌹🐚❤️

Just got the Interstate home. 1 1/2 days after I took it in just for new tires.

Vehicle-less, I got a ride to and from Needlework group this afternoon...I won't be there again for months, so glad I didn't have to miss it as I really enjoy those ladies and especially wanted to tell the genealogy divas about my 23andMe results.

The staging area is beginning to fill by the front door, for serious summer travel which begins next Thursday.

Got ferry reservations made to/from the friends on Orcas island I will be visiting before the Shirley Valentine gathering, and firmed up plans to see some other fellow travelers while I am in the Seattle area.

It's been a busy day, but most of it was spent inside the house.

Maggie

__________________
🏡 🚐 Cherish and appreciate those you love. This moment could be your last.🌹🐚❤️

Maggie, I know I sound like a broken record on this subject, but get the lug nut torque checked on a regular schedule after someone has worked on your wheels. You were very fortunate that wheel came off at low speed a while back. Take no chances.

When we meet, I'll show you how I do it. I do find a lug nut loose once in a while, so I'm convinced it's worth the five minutes of effort it takes.

Maggie and Mimi,
I see there is another task I need to add to my routine....checking lug nuts. I'll check with a local tire shop to see if they can do that and check tire pressures in all6 tires before my long fall trip. Thanks for the tip!

Got the little house scrubbed and put to rights yesterday, and more items pulled to go out to the Interstate.

Son and his will be here today for lunch at Grandma's house, with temps moderate enough that we can sit outside on the patio and the kids can romp in the yard.

Heat and humidity were so high here for awhile, neither woman nor beast could stand to be out in it for very long.

Summer in the Midwest.

Have had a couple of requests for sharing of DNA on 23andMe, and decided yesterday to just do "open sharing" there...for any of my DNA relatives on that site to access and determine how we are linked.

This site lays out the linkages differently, listing provided surnames for each relative so that one can quickly narrow a search.

It is pretty fascinating, and I have found one relative who lists the...misspelled at the time...last name of my great-uncle who died at Antietam.

We have never even known where he was born or when, nor had any information that he ever married or had children. After their mother and 12 siblings died before emigration from Germany, or of yellow fever in New Orleans, their father sent these last two young boys to live with relatives.

I've never even been able to determine where this great-uncle lived prior to enlisting in the Washington Artillery during the Civil War...unlike my great-grandfather, who may have been quite a bit older and where there is a plethora of information in census and other public records.

A very sobering outcome of this testing, and that thru ancestry.com some years ago, is the number of modern day African Americans looking to determine the origin of their non-African ancestry....as DNA results link their enslaved ancestors to my Northern European ones.

How hard it must be to look into the past, and see not only the history of slavery in this country...but to not know where you have come from, who exactly your ancestors were.

That knowledge is so grounding to me, knowing who and where my people were, and something of their lives.

I intend to help those who have reached out to me, because it's the right thing to do.

Perhaps it is reparations of a sort.

It feels a bit that way.

Maggie

__________________
🏡 🚐 Cherish and appreciate those you love. This moment could be your last.🌹🐚❤️

You may have noticed that I'm a strong advocate of knowing how to do the safety-related stuff for yourself. At least, it enables you to double check the work of those who claim to have done it for you--like the dork who set you up to lose that wheel.

Meanwhile, other news...
Yesterday, I sold the little house John and I shared for almost 50 years, and I've nearly completed getting my stuff out to the second home in the country. The work of cleaning out all that stuff that John put away "in case we need it later" and getting moved has been overwhelming. The buyers are very kindly giving me this weekend to get the last things out.

Unpacking has had to wait until moving is complete, so Blackie and I are living in a small house filled with boxes and badly arranged furniture. The peace and quiet of being out in the country is worth all the hassle, though, and the sale price of the house should fund the building of my dream home.

So, I envy you (playing with grandkids) and Evelyn (camping with the Boondocking School group) from afar right now, and am really looking forward to my trip north next month. Until then y"all have fun for me.